A Metadata Application Profile for ORCID

Authors:
Dong Joon Lee, Florida State University, dl10e@my.fsu.edu
Michael Witt, Purdue University, mwitt@purdue.edu
Richard J. Urban, Florida State University, rurban@fsu.edu
Beth Plale, Indiana University, plale@cs.indiana.edu

Abstract:
Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) is an open, nonprofit, and community-driven effort to prevent name confusion in research and scholarly communities. ORCID distinguishes researchers and contributors by assigning unique researcher identifiers and linking research activities, including scholarly works, affiliations, and funding, to these identifiers. Since the registry service launched in October 2012, the number of ORCID identifiers has rapidly increased, and the registry has been continuously improved through the active use of ORCID API.

This study aims to fill the gap between practical uses and conceptual understandings of ORCID metadata. Since the ORCID Message format was primarily developed with API uses in mind, there was a lack of formal documentation describing the structure of ORCID metadata. In this project, a structured description of the metadata provided by ORCID is presented by using the Dublin Core Application Profile as a model (Coyle & Baker, 2009). A main purpose of Application Profiles includes the development and documentation of community consensus. Through the Application Profile, communities can express their own intentions and expectations beyond the current existing metadata specification. By using these recommendations, the structured description of ORCID metadata can help expose and enhance the quality of ORCID metadata (Hillmann & Phipps, 2007).

The ORCID Metadata Application Profile (OMAP) is designed to draw a preliminary conceptual outline for the ORCID Message schema (based on ORCID Message 1.2 release candidate 5) and initiate a productive discussion among the ORCID user community (including end-users, ORCID developers, and API consumers). The documentation will help broaden understanding of the structure and use of registry metadata. The OMAP articulates the purposes and scope, functional requirements, domain model, and metadata dictionary of the ORCID Message schema, with a focus on the Agents and Activities that are at the heart of ORCID’s mission. The application profile can also inform librarians, repository managers, scholarly communities, and publishers about metadata requirements for ORCID. Developing the OMAP will facilitate interoperability within the domain, support the evolution of the ORCID Message schema, and encourage alignment of ORCID practices with the larger metadata community. This project as a first draft will be shared with ORCID and Persistent Identifier Interest Group of Research Data Alliance for continuous progress.

References:

Coyle, K., & Baker, T. (2009). Guidelines for Dublin Core Application Profiles. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. Retrieved from http://dublincore.org/documents/profile-guidelines/

Hillmann, D., & Phipps, J. (2007). Application Profiles: Exposing and enforcing metadata quality. Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Application, 52-62, Retrieved from http://dcpapers.dublincore.org/pubs/article/view/866